


Started From the Bottom

by writersneverdie



Series: Rookies in Montreal [3]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-23
Updated: 2013-03-23
Packaged: 2017-12-06 06:38:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/732557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writersneverdie/pseuds/writersneverdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You want to put a label on it?” He asks Brendan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Started From the Bottom

Being in the second round of the playoffs is one of the best feelings Alex has ever felt. It’s up there with the World Junior Finals. He doesn’t like to think past the next game but he imagines that being in the Stanley Cup Finals is Christmas morning x1,000.

His family is back in town, along with his father, and they are probably even more excited than he is that the Habs have made it into the next round and, although there is a lot of pressure on them to win, everyone involved is so fucking giddy about it all.

Brendan’s family has made their way to the home games, as well. He’s generally a happy guy, but Brendan is even happier when his family’s around and it puts a smile on Alex’s face. He’s invested now, in Brendan’s happiness, and it goes further than just what happens on the ice. It freaks him out, a lot of the time, but he trying to deal with it. So, he’s glad that Brendan gets to have his family around, too. Even if it has limited the time they spend together to only hockey related shit.

‘just wait until an away game’ is a text message they have sent back and forth multiple times in their 4 day stay in Montreal. Alex’s family is travelling to the away games, but they’ll have their hotel room. Alex kind of can’t wait for their, his and Brendan’s, hotel room.

____

His mom tries to convince him that they should invite the Gallagher’s over for dinner on the night before game 1.

“I don’t want to bother them,” Alex tells her because it’s THE WORST IDEA EVER, “they probably already have their own plans.”

“Just ask, please, for me,” she flashes him that guilty look, “I want to meet them, and chat before the game tomorrow.”

“Why? You’ll see them at the rink, I can make sure you have seats near each other.” Alex can’t actually do that but he is willingly to make any promises so that he doesn’t have to sit in a formal dining situation with his and Brendan’s families.

“He’s your best friend on the team, Alex, and I bet his mom and I would have a lot to talk about.” Alex knows his mom will not be giving up. “Not to mention your father and his, they will talk hockey until the sun comes up tomorrow.”

“But, you can do this all at the game!”

“The game is too stressful, I want to invite them to our home, Alex, just do it, please?”

“Ok, fine, but I am not guaranteeing they don’t already have plans.”

His mom pats him on the side of the face and says, “That’s fine. Thank you.”

Alex decides he has to call Brendan rather than text because he needs to portray how bad of an idea this is and he does not want to be subtle about it.

“Alex?” is how Brendan answers the phone-they don’t usually call one another.

“Hey, Bren,” he starts trying to sound like this is completely normal. “Hey, so, my mom has threatened me to invite you and your family over here for dinner tonight, but, you guys already have plans tonight, right?”

Brendan chuckles and says, “She threatened you, eh? With what? She’ll ground you if you don’t?”

“Shut up, you guys are busy, right, if you could just tell me what you guys are busy with that would be great, so I have something specific to tell her.” Alex thinks he’s been better, lately, with trying to talk about the things he wants to say rather than be a dick about it, but he may be regressing a little bit right now. At least he’s trying to keep the conversation light.

“First, Chuckie, we actually do have real plans tonight. My old coach from Vancouver and his family are coming in for the game and we are taking them out to dinner.”

“Wow, that’s fucking golden, shit, Brendan.”

“Second, what would be so bad about us coming over for dinner?”

“Uh, you’re kidding, right? You can’t actually think that would be a good idea.” Alex walks into his bathroom then because he needs two doors, two rooms, between himself and everyone else, for the rest of this conversation.

“I think it would be just fine, you don’t think the other guys have dinner with the families of their best buddies on the team?”

“Somehow, our situation is probably a little bit different.”

Brendan laughs and Alex can see through the phone how he looks, eyes closed, head tipped back, neck exposed.

“You never know, Alex.”

“Yea, well, thanks, for having plans.”

“Your welcome, I think? You know they will meet at the game tomorrow, right?”

“Yea, but you and I will not be there to, like, try and pretend that we’re just two dudes who play hockey together.” Alex has gotten better at not checking Brendan out all the time, and giving him “the eyes” as his sister says, but that is only because he’s actually had sex with him.

“What are we then, huh? If we are not just two dudes that play hockey together?” Brendan’s baiting him. But, he’s not going to play this game, he’s been under too much stress already today.

“Um? We are obviously two guys that play hockey together, then we go home and we fuck, so, yeah, we don’t need to tell our parents that.”

Brendan makes a small scoffing sound. “Ok, then, Alex, I will see you tomorrow.”

“Ah, yea, Gally, see you tomorrow, have a good time with your coach.”

“Yea, thanks, bye.”

He totally said the wrong thing. Fuck his life. It’s a no win.

____

Brendan texts him in the morning asking if he can pick him up at his parents hotel and bring him to the rink. Anna is going to be dropping him off so his dad can have his car, so he kind of wants to say no, but he knows he has to say yes.

‘sure, anna is bringing me-we will be there in 20’ he types to give Brendan a heads up, to leave his “eyes” at home.

He gets in the car and Anna speaks up first, “Hey Brendan! It’s nice to see you.”

“You too,” Brendan tells her. Alex doesn’t look at him, or say anything to him.

“You guys ready for the game tonight?” Anna asks looking over at Alex.

“Yea, I think so,” he says.

“We are definitely ready,” Brendan chimes in.

“Alex told me your old coach was in town, that must of been nice to see him,” Anna continues the conversation and Alex is fucking delighted. He still hasn’t looked back at Brendan.

“Yea, it was really nice to see him. Always great to see people that helped you get to where you are now.”

“I’m sure, are they coming to the game today?”

“Yea, they will be sitting with my parents.”

“Nice, I look forward to meeting them. You’ll have to meet them after the game, huh Alex?”

“Yea, you will have to tell his wife and daughter the best shopping spots around here, they were asking him but I have no idea.”

Anna looks over at him and gives him a look which Alex interprets as meaning, “why are you being so rude and fucking weird right now?” He slightly shrugs his shoulders and looks out the window.

“Sounds great, Brendan, our families will all have to get together soon, my mom is dying to have you guys over for dinner.” Alex flinches ever so slightly but continues to study the landscape outside the window.

“Let’s hope we keep winning, so my parents will come back into town for the next round, eh?”

That finishes their conversation. Anna’s given up and Alex hasn’t given in. Brendan sits silently in the back like the polite young man he is, only talking when being asked a question.

It’s only a few more minutes to the rink and when they get there Alex and Brendan both thank Anna for driving them. Anna tells Brendan it was no problem and flicks Alex off at the same time.

Once they start their walk to the door Brendan says, “Why are you being so weird?”

“I’m not being weird.”

“You’re being the weirdest I’ve ever seen you be. You know, your sister isn’t going to figure it out just by the way you talk to me.”

They make it inside the building and go their separate ways when they make it to the room. Brendan always takes a shower when they get to the rink and Alex always tapes his sticks.

As he’s going through his pre-game routines, Alex tries to focus solely on the game. On what coach has told him to do and how they are going to win. But, he can’t help but let his thoughts wander to Brendan. How he’s fucking failing at dating him, how he doesn’t even know if he wants to be dating him. What if he justs wants to fuck-no complications? He can’t fucking deal with all the other shit. The feelings and the families and everything else.

Brendan tells him he is heading to the bench. He doesn’t invite Alex, per-say, but he knows it’s implied. This is their thing. But, when Alex makes his way out there, he finds that P.K. is sitting in his spot.

“Uh, hi?” Alex says to him, as if he hasn’t already seen P.K. a thousand times today.

“Chuckie!” P.K. says enthusiastically.

“I invited him,” Brendan says not looking at him.

“I wanted to know what it was all about,” P.K. says looking at him. “Hope that’s okay with you.”

“You usually play football,” Alex says not yet going to sit down because P.K. is in his fucking spot and is talking to his fucking guy, doing his fucking pre-game routine.

“Thought I would change it up today, trying to be a team guy, ya know.” He smiles like he isn’t putting Alex on the absolute edge.

“You’re in my spot,” Alex says making his way down onto the same level.

“Oh, sorry bout that, Gally said I could sit wherever.” He moves a few inches closer to Brendan and Alex takes his spot on the bench. He can’t even see Brendan with P.K’s head in between them.

Shit, Alex thinks as Subby and Gally talk game plan, he knew he was fucked when he had kissed Brendan a couple months ago, but wow, he’s gotten himself into more than he can chew. He likes P.K. Subban a lot, but if he makes Brendan smile like that while he sits in his spot on the bench during their pre-game routine one more time, he is willing to drop the gloves with him.

____

They win one and drop one and then they are on the road again. Alex can feel his body jumping in anticipation to it being curfew time because then he will have no other excuse as to why he shouldn’t be alone with Brendan in their hotel room. They have barely touched in what seems like ages.

His parents are staying in the same hotel, but on the complete other side. He texts Brendan when he’s on his way across the hotel, ‘i’m on my way, please say you’re there.’ He’s been giving Alex the cold shoulder a little bit, he thinks, but it could just be the pressure and the situation they are in. At least he didn’t invite P.K. to the bench last game- that’s got to be something.

‘going to be another 10, in taxi’ Brendan texts him back and Alex rolls his eyes. How annoying, he thinks.

He gets out of his street clothes and into some shorts and a t-shirt even though he doesn’t anticipate he will be keeping them on for very long. Always want to be prepared in case one of the boys knocks on the door.

When Brendan shows up he is in the middle of texting someone, he barely glances at Alex as he takes his shoes off and sits on his bed. When he’s done he sets his phone down on the side table and picks the TV remote up.

“So, how was your day?” Alex says, eventually since it seems that he’s not going to start this conversation.

“Good, got to spend some time with some of my old buddies who are in town.” Brendan finally looks at him and Alex takes it as an invitation to get up and go sit with Brendan on his bed.

He takes a seat very close to Brendan, close enough that their bodies are touching from shoulder to knees. “What’d you guys do?” Alex asks.

“Just got some lunch and shot the shit, you know.” Alex nods and can’t take it anymore. He ducks his head to catch Brendan’s mouth in his. Brendan kisses him, but not like Alex is wanting him to. He tries to nudge his lips open, brings his hand up to the side of his face to push them closer together but Brendan isn’t exactly responding.

Alex eventually pulls away and looks Brendan in the eye. He’s going to say something but then there is a knock at the door. Brendan jumps up off the bed saying, “I’ll get that.”

He runs to the door and opens it, it’s Prusty. He enters the room. “Hey boys, how’s it going in here.”

Alex is still sitting on Brendan’s bed, he thinks he should of moved. “Not much, what’s up with you?”

“Oh, nothing, just checking in, you know.”

“Everything’s good here,” Brendan says sitting down at the table by the window.

“You guys are heading to bed soon, right? Gotta get some rest.”

“Yea, I was just about to jump into the shower when you knocked,” Brendan tells him and then stands up and unzips the sweatshirt he is wearing.

“Alright then, I guess, I will leave you to it,” Brandon says turning to leave the room. “Get some sleep, eh, Chuckie? You’re looking a little rough.”

Alex flicks him off and Brandon laughs loudly as he leaves the room. Brendan’s basically already in the bathroom by the time the door closes behind Brandon. “I’m just going to take a shower,” he says to Alex. “It’s been a long day and I want to be ready for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem,” Alex says and Brendan closes the door to the bathroom. Alex isn’t sure what to do now. Should he get in his own bed, or should he stay in Brendan’s? He’s cool with them not doing anything tonight because they do have a game tomorrow. He wasn’t really planning on them doing much, maybe handies, but he mostly just wanted to make out and then sleep together in the same bed.

He stays in Brendan’s bed for a while watching whatever is on the TV. After 15 minutes of Brendan being in the bathroom he just needs to know what to do so he can get on with the night. He gets up and knocks on the bathroom door.

He can hear that the shower is still running. “Yea?” Brendan says.

“Should I sleep in my own bed?” Alex says face close to the door.

“What?”

“Should I sleep in my own bed, or can I stay in yours?” Alex asks again a little louder.

“I can’t hear you, Chuckie, just come in,” Brendan yells back at him.

Alex opens the door and is hit with a wave of water vapor. “What were you saying?” Brendan says through the shower curtain.

“I was just, you know,” Alex is starting the lose his courage, “wondering if I should sleep in my own bed tonight.” Brendan doesn’t say anything back for 10 seconds, 20. “Or if,” Alex decides to continue, “I can sleep in yours. With you.”

Brendan is still pausing and Alex thinks that maybe he couldn’t hear him. Should he start from the beginning? He’s not sure if he can make it through it again.

“I think,” Brendan finally says, “You can stay in mine.”

“You sure?” Alex asks because Brendan doesn’t sound sure.

He pokes his head out of the shower curtain and looks right at Alex. “Yea, but I’m not, like, in the mood.”

“Yea, no, of course, big game tomorrow,” Alex says.

“Ok, yea. I shouldn’t be much longer.” He still has his head out of the curtain and Alex wants to kiss his stupid wet lips.

“K, I will leave you to it, then.” Brendan starts to pull his head back into the shower but Alex shoots his hands out to stop him from closing the curtain and kisses him, quickly. It makes Brendan smile and Alex does a tiny fist pump.

____

They lose the first road game in a bad way with a lot of guys making mistakes. They gave the other team the game and everyone is pissed about it in the room. Not afraid to tell everyone how they are feeling and how they will never let this happen again.

After coach gives his own tongue lashing, he walks out and one of the assistants asks Brendan to come by after he gets his gear off. Alex can’t help but feel for him because he knows that Brendan understands the mistake he made and he’ll beat himself up for it enough. He doesn’t need coach rubbing it in his face. But, there’s nothing Alex can do about it. He just has to be there for Brendan when it’s all said and done. He’s fucking thankful they are on the road right now.

When he gets back to their room Brendan is already there in his bed, staring at his iPad. Alex strips his suit off and puts his sleep clothes on not saying anything. After he’s done, he sits on the end of Brendan’s bed and puts his hand on his leg.

“You alright?” he asks quietly.

Brendan looks up at him and shrugs his shoulders, “I’m fine.”

“We’ll be better next game, we’ll get it back. A lot of people made mistakes tonight, myself included.”

Brendan shifts his legs so that Alex’s hand falls off of it, “I know.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex tells him because he doesn’t know what else to say.

“Sorry for what? That I played shitty? Or that we’re only having this conversation because we happen to be at an away game?”

Alex furrows his eyebrows and says, “Um, what? I was just trying to make you feel better.”

“Well, thanks for your current concern but I can’t deal with your flip flopping emotional bullshit right now.”

Alex is stunned, speechless almost. He opens his mouth to say something a few times before he gets out, “Flip-flopping emotional bullshit?”

“Yea,” Brendan starts, throwing his iPad aside on the bed, “One minute you can’t wait to see me and act all fucking romantic and shit and the next moment you want nothing to do with me. Did you ever think that this is fucking hard for me, too? Confusing for me, too?”

“Um,” Alex stumbles because, no, he really never has, if he thinks about it.

“Exactly, you think I’m just happy to take whatever the fuck you’re willing to give me. You don’t think I worry about what MY parents would say if they found out. What the boys who do to ME if they found out. I am just trying to keep this as normal as fucking possible, Alex.”

“But, you wanted our parents to have dinner together, and you got mad when I said we were just hockey players who fuck when they go home.” Alex stands up and starts pacing around the room.

“Yea, because teammates have their families hang out all the time, it’s not weird. It’s weird if we don’t do that. And you really think we are just two hockey players that fuck? You really think that?”

“No, of course not, no. I mean, sometimes I wish it were less complicated, that there were less, circumstances, involved, but it’s more than that, Brendan, of course, it’s more than that.”

“Yeah, well, you’re fucking toying with me, Alex and I’m sick of it, okay? I can’t do it anymore.” Brendan gets up off the bed, grabs his phone, iPad and room key and starts walking to the door.

“Where are you going?” Alex asks him.

“I just need to get out of here, get away from this horrible fucking day,” he says and leaves.

That is not how Alex had wanted that to go, at all. He wanted to make Brendan feel better. All he fucking did was make it worse. Fuck. Alex hates these moments. The ones where he realizes all the mistakes he’s made and he has no idea how to fix them.

He really wishes he could talk to his sister about this. He wishes he could talk to Nail about this. He wishes he could talk to anyone about this. Alex has never felt more like a teenager since he started playing professional hockey than he does right now.

____

Brendan does come back at some point during the night. Alex doesn’t sleep well and they are both looking worse for the wear in the morning. They fall into their old routine. The one they had in place before they started this whole thing. Except, it’s quieter and less full of absolute youthful optimism.

On the bench, they chat about the things they are going to change in their game and the things they picked up on last night. When they hit a lull in the hockey talk Alex wants to say something about last night, about how he knows he’s made mistakes and that he’s sorry but, he doesn’t. And Brendan doesn’t either. So they sit in silence stick handling a puck back and forth until they have to head back and suit up.

After a comeback win followed by a spirited media session and quick hugs from his family on the way to the bus, Alex is on the plane back to Montreal. Somehow in all the rush of everything, he sits down next to Brendan, like he usually does, and smiles and pats his thigh, like he usually does, they laugh together and feel good about being next to each other. Until, Alex keeps his hand on Brendan’s thigh a little too long to be normal. Brendan tilts his head back with a pained expression on his face but Alex just squeezes his legs a little tighter.

He finally lets go after the look on Brendan’s face is so pained Alex can’t help it anymore. He pulls his iPad out and intends to play the new angry birds when he gets an idea. Brendan doesn’t look like he intends to sleep on the flight so Alex pulls up the notes app and writes:

good game tonight babe. (i know that doesn’t make up for me being shitty but i just need to start somewhere)

He nudges Brendan and hands him the iPad. He watches Brendan read the note with little expression on his face. He looks away so Brendan can type his response. A few minutes later Brendan places it back on his lap.

it hurts to say it, but i don’t know if there is any way back. i think we should just focus on playoffs and then talk after, maybe give ourselves the summer to think about it all.

It’s a punch to Alex’s gut. He can tell Brendan didn’t watch him read it and he’s glad because he’s stunned. He stares at it for a while, trying to decide what to do, what to say. He has an immediate reaction to say so many different things, but he wants to think about this. Make an informed decision rather than an emotional one like his mom has been trying to teach him since forever.

He starts typing, ‘okay whatever you want’, but then he deletes it. He starts over again with, ‘please tell what i can do to make it up to you’, but deletes that, too. Next, he types, ‘your right about everything’, but changes it to ‘i understand where your coming from and your right that i didn’t think about how this was making you feel and i’m so sorry. i want to talk to you about this when we actually can say it out loud. but, i don’t want summer without you in it.’

He reads it over a few times and hands it over. He doesn’t watch Brendan read it this time. Instead, he tilts his head back and closes his eyes. He doesn’t know how long it is before Brendan hands him back the iPad because he has started to doze off. Brendan’s response is short, though, and simple.

‘take me out to dinner tomorrow night and we’ll talk.’

Alex smiles and nudges Brendan on the thigh. When he opens his eyes Alex whispers, “Deal,” to him.

They sleep with their knees touching for the duration of the flight.

____

They have an optional skate the next day that Alex opts to go to but Brendan does not. He had gotten a little beaten up in the game before and everyone told him to take it easy. Alex is glad he decided to listen.

As he’s leaving the rink he texts Brendan ‘pick you up at 7:15-no need to dress up.’

Brendan texts him back, ‘you think i would dress up for you anyway?’ and Alex is happy to see they have achieved a little bit of normalcy.

He takes an afternoon nap and when he wakes up he goes to hang in the living room where his mom and sister are watching TV. He sits and watches with them for awhile, enjoying the lazy afternoon. It’s nice.

“What should we do for dinner?” his mom asks as the afternoon turns into early evening.

“I’m not going to be around,” Alex tells them. He not going to be weird about this, he’s just going to fucking be normal about it.

“Why not? Team thing?” his mom asks.

“Yea, me and Brendan are going to grab a bite.”

Anna looks over at him and smiles, “Date night?”

“Ha, ha, Anna, we’re just going to grab some burgers at this place Gorges keeps talking about.”

“So, I guess it’s just me and you then, Anna,” his mom chimes in, “Would you be okay with take out?”

“That’s fine with me,” Anna responds. They go back to watching TV and Alex is fucking thrilled he made it through that without being weird or lying about it. He can totally do this.

Later, as he’s getting ready Anna comes into his room and sits down on his bed. “So, you’re going to dinner with Brendan, huh?”

Alex doesn’t look at her, he just continues putting his deodorant on saying, “Yea. Gorges recommended this place so we thought we would check it out.”

“Any of the other guys coming?”

“Nope, everyone is spending the night with their families, but Brendan’s family went back to Vancouver so I told him we could do dinner.” He’s done getting ready now so he walks out of the room to put his shoes on. Anna follows.

“That’s nice of you, to entertain him.”

“Uh, I guess? We do dinner all the time, Anna. I’m not sure why you are giving me the third degree right now.”

“When’s the last time you went out to dinner with just Brendan? You always have dinner at home with us.”

“Um, like 2 nights ago? And, like, every night you guys were gone?” Alex opens the door because he’s going to be late and he’s going to freak the fuck out if his sister keeps it up.

“Alright, well, have fun, I guess, tell Brendan I say hi.”

“Will do. Bye,” Alex says closing the door. He’s going to have to tell her. At least, he hopes that this dinner goes well so that he has something to tell her. She’ll understand. He thinks.

____

Alex picks Brendan up at Gorges’. He thought about going to knock on the door and doing this all proper and shit but decides to text him instead. A minute later Brendan runs out wearing a nice T-Shirt and a pair of jeans Alex has never seen him wear before.

“New pants?” Alex asks when Brendan sits down.

“Yea, went to the mall earlier with P.K. and Pricey.”

“They look good.”

Brendan smiles big and says, “Thanks, P.K. insisted I get them.”

Alex had made reservations for them and Brendan seemed impressed when he told the hostess. Another 2 points in the plus column, Alex thinks, as the woman walks them to their table. He hasn’t even had to put one in the negative column yet.

The conversation is kept pretty light before their food comes. Alex asks Brendan a couple questions about his family’s visit and how’s his dad’s team’s doing and shit like that. It eventually leads to talk about their standing in the playoffs and getting to the next round.

Their food is set in front of them and Brendan finishes his previous thought, “I’m not at all ready for summer to begin.”

Alex laughs and say, “Me either, man. What are you plans, for summer though, as we’re on the subject.”

“Smooth transition,” Brendan says pushing himself forward to tap his knees against Alex’s under the table.

“I’m smooth as fuck,” Alex says laughing.

“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it too much. Will probably go home for a bit. Might do a couple camps,” Brendan says shifting the tone of the conversation. This is the reason they came here, Alex knows, but that doesn’t mean he feels at all comfortable with it. He doesn’t know how to tell Brendan anything because he doesn’t know what he’s feeling.

“I was thinking I would stick around Canada and train here, might go back to Russia for a short time with Nail and our families, but going to spend the majority of my time in Canada,” Alex says.

“You thinking Montreal?”

“I don’t know, maybe? Maybe not?”

That sends them into an extended silence where they concentrate on eating. After Alex finishes most of his burger he says, “I’m sorry, you know, about.” He stops.

“About being an insensitive dick?” Brendan finishes for him.

“Yea, I mean, I didn’t think about how you were feeling about it all. How are you feeling about this all?” Alex forgets sometimes, how mature Brendan is in his attitude towards things, and it makes him feel even younger the he is. But, he’s trying here, trying to be more on Brendan’s level. He just asked him about his feelings, that’s gotta count for something.

Brendan takes the last bite of his burger and throws his napkin down on his plate. “I was feeling good about it, ya know, I felt like I finally got you to break and admit that you were into me as much as I was into you. But, when you got weird about me staying over when your family left, I started to think about it all and it definitely stressed me out.”

“What did?”

“You know, about if people were going to find out and how that would affect our careers and how my parents would take it. But, that didn’t stop me from wanting to be with you. You being a paranoid, passive-aggressive, dickhead is what did that.”

Alex deserves this, he does. And he shouldn’t be so surprised by Brendan’s words because he knows that way he plays hockey, that he goes to the difficult places, but it still hurts.

“Wow,” Alex manages to get out, “when you put it that way.”

Brendan kicks his leg under the table and says, “Hey, it needed to be said, but if you’re willing to work with me on this we can figure it out. But, this is a two way street, man.”

He thinks about for a second about how, if he wants to do this with Brendan’s it’s going to be more than just broning. Like both of them have feelings involved and it’s going to be legit dating and shit. Even though they definitely have already been doing dating shit like watching movies cuddled up on the couch, texting each other goodnight and holding hands when they can, he never wanted to think about it this way and put a label on it.

“You want to put a label on it?” He asks Brendan, who has pulled his wallet out.

“Sure, I mean, if you want, but we don’t have to.” He motions the waiter over and hands him his credit card.

“I was planning on paying, you know, you didn’t have to.”

“You got the next one,” Brendan says smiling. “So, you’re agreeing that this is work and that I am not just some piece of ass you get to have when it’s convenient for you?”

“That’s really what you think about me?”

The waiter brings back the check and thanks them for coming in. Alex doesn’t even look at him, he’s too on edge waiting for Brendan’s response.

“Look, I knew you didn’t mean to be like that and that you cared and shit, but a lot of times that is what you made me feel like.”

Alex stands up and runs over behind Brendan’s chair to pull it out for him. Brendan let’s him but then pushes him away.

“I’m about to bring you to the most romantic and safe place I can think of off the top of my head where we can, you know, be alone.”

Brendan laughs and says, “Oh yea? Where is that?”

“Just you wait. It’s a surprise,” Alex says grinning and bumping their hands together as they walk out of the restaurant.

____

“You’re bringing me to the fucking Bell Centre?” Alex is pushing Brendan into the staff entrance after illegally parking in the ‘security guard only’ spot.

“Shhh,” he says beeping them in with his key chain, “We need to be quiet.”

“I can’t believe this is your idea of romance,” Brendan whispers, “Chuckie, this is really not necessary. Like, we can just wait until the next away game, it’s okay.”

“No, Brendan, trust me. Plus, you really think I can make it until the next away game? Come on, we have the biggest game of our lives tomorrow, we need this.”

“I hope by ‘this’, you don’t mean some sort of, like, penetration.”

Alex can’t help but laugh a little too loud and then stifle it with the hand that is pulling Brendan around the dimmed Bell Centre. “Of course not, shit, we have a game tomorrow!”

“Just making sure,” Brendan whispers. He continues to allow himself to be dragged by Alex.

They are on the suite level of the arena and Alex is looking intently at every door so he doesn’t miss it. He finally thinks he sees it after they walk halfway around the level. He drops Brendan’s hand and bends over the little bit he has to in order to put his lips right to his ear, “Wait here,” he whispers. He feels Brendan shiver. He licks his ear lobe and receives a low moan in response.

Alex walks to the door in front of him and ducks his head in. He reaches his arm in and flicks the lights on. Wow, this place is even more perfect than described. He turns back to Brendan and beckons him in.

They both enter the room and look around. There are three couches of varying styles and end tables flanked by chinese lamps. There is a variety of magazines, lotions and perfumes on top of the tables.

“What is this?” Brendan asks.

“It’s one of the women’s bathrooms on the suite level,” Alex says picking up one of the perfume bottles and smelling it. “Max told me about it.”

“Wow, I have never been in a nicer bathroom in my life.” Brendan sits down on the biggest of the couches and puts his feet up on the footrest in front of him.

Alex sits down next to him and when Brendan turns his head to look at him, he raises his eyebrows up and down at him. “What do you think-good enough?”

“Yea, I mean, this place is great, but I feel a little bad about, like, dirtying it up,” Brendan says putting his forehead to Alex’s.

“For real?” Alex puts his hand on side of Brendan’s face and brings their lips inches away from each other.

Brendans laughs lightly, “No.” He connects their lips and deepens the kiss immediately. He pushes Alex down on the couch so he is laying down. He drapes his long legs over the arm of the couch, kicking over the bottles. Brendan is straddling his body, attacking his lips. They fit nicely like this, Alex with his long body sprawled on the bottom of the couch, Brendan with his smaller frame scrunched up and prowling over him.

After kissing like that for a while Brendan pulls his body up and tugs his shirt off. Alex puts his hands up with the intention of helping him but ends up running his hands over Brendan’s body. Brendan’s gets the shirt off and brings himself back down to continue kissing Alex.

“Take yours off,” Brendan says against his mouth, “Come on.” Brendan sits up and leans back to allow Alex the room to pull his shirt off. It takes some maneuvering but he manages to get it done without either of them having to leave the couch.

Brendan lays down on top of him, bringing their bare chests together and reconnecting their mouths. Brendan’s body is a lot more compact than his. His torso is a few inches shorter than Alex’s so he can feel Brendan’s dick on his lower stomach. He reaches his hand and grabs Brendan’s ass, making him grind himself into Alex.

Brendan moans into his mouth and continues to bring their hips into contact, arching himself lower so they connect. Alex brings his hands in between their bodies and starts to take Brendan’s belt off. He whips it off and throws it aside.

“What were you thinking exactly?” Brendan says climbing off of him to take his pants off. “Blowies?”

Alex extends his long arms to pull Brendan back on top of him and continue kissing him. “Take these off, too,” he says pulling Brendan’s underwear down his ass. Brendan maneuvers them off without having to get up off of Alex. Once he does he inches his way up Alex’s body until his dick is right in his face.

Alex smiles and sticks his tongue out to lick at the tip. This is new, they’ve always stuck to conventional modes of blowing, but Alex kind of loves it. Loves having Brendan’s solid thighs around his head and his dick fucking presented to him.

“Oh my god, Alex,” Brendan says when Alex takes him into his mouth for the first time. Brendan falls forward and catches himself on the end table. It gives Alex a better angle and he continues to bring Brendan deeper into his throat. Brendan’s moans and his attempts to not thrust his hips get overwhelming quickly. He needs to not have his pants on anymore. It’s painful.

“Can you,” he says pulling his mouth away, “Can you take my pants off?” Brendan laughs and jumps up off of him. Alex starts to undo his belt but Brendan pushes his hands away. He opens up the buckle, undoes the buttons and pulls his pants and underwear off of him.

Once they are completely off he takes Alex’s dick into his hands and licks at the tip. “Ugh,” Alex says because it feels so good. “Come back here,” he manages to say, getting Brendan to pull off.

“You like this, eh?” Brendan says straddling his head again.

“Duh,” he says picking up where he left off. This time, though, he’s got a hand on his own dick. He can tell that they are both close, both on the edge. He keeps the pace up with his mouth on Brendan and his hand on himself. After another minute Brendan says, “I’m gonna,” and Alex pulls his mouth away. He scoots down a few inches and starts to jerk off his own dick. Alex watches him, watches the way his face looks and watches his abs and arms flex with each motion. Brendan looks him straight in the eye and says, “Oh, fuck,” and then spills all over Alex’s chest.

Alex follows closely behind, hitting Brendan’s ass and back. He throws his head back and hits it hard on the arm but doesn’t feel a thing.

After their breath evens out and they regain some sort of consciousness Brendan leans down and kisses him. “Wow.”

“I know,” Alex says. “Maybe I should just continuing being an asshole.” Brendan laughs and hits him on the chest. “Hey, can you reach the kleenex on the table there?”

“Yea, hold up.” Brendan reaches across him and grabs the box, handing it to Alex.

“The last thing we need to do is leave a mark on this beautiful bathroom.”

“How come we don’t get frilly bathrooms like this? This is fucking epic, man.” Alex cleans them both up and Brendan gets up off him and starts walking around, going into the other room.

“I don’t know, I’m just happy Max told me about it.”

“We should send him a thank you letter,” Brendan says walking back into the room with Alex.

“Yea, great idea, ‘Dear Max, thanks for letting us know about the Woman’s lounge on the suite level, we just had the best makeup sex ever there. Love, Gally and Chuckie.”

“Yea, maybe not.”

____


End file.
